Assorted articles and Information

Forbes’ 2008 Top Ten Richest Billionaires in the World

1. Warren Buffett, US, 62 billion dollars (investment/Berkshire Hathaway)

2. Carlos Slim Helu, Mexico, 60 billion dollars (telecom, banking, tobacco)

3. Bill Gates, US, 58 billion dollars (Microsoft)

4. Lakshmi Mittal, India, 45 billion dollars (steel)

5. Mukesh Ambani, India, 43 billion dollars (petrochemicals)

6. Anil Ambani, India, 42 billion dollars (energy)

7. Ingvar Kamprad, Sweden, 31 billion dollars (Ikea)

8. K.P. Singh, India, 30 billion dollars (real estate)

9. Oleg Deripaska, Russia, 28 billion dollars (aluminium)

10. Karl Albrecht, Germany, 27 billion dollars (retail).

Warren Edward Buffett

Warren Edward Buffett was born on August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska. He is an American investor, businessman and philanthropist. Buffett is often regarded as one of the worlds greatest stock market investors and is the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. With an estimated net worth of around US$62 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world as of March 5, 2008. In 2007, Buffett was listed among Time’s 100 Most Influential People in The World. He also serves as a member of the board of trustees at Grinnell College, where his advice on asset management has led to Grinnell College having the second largest endowment of any liberal arts college in the United States.

Education,Carrier and Contribution

Buffett started his education in Woodrow Wilson Senior High School, which is a secondary school in Washington, DC. He made his higher education in the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1947–1949. He made his Bachelor of Science (BSc) in University of Nebraska and Master of Science (MSc) in Columbia University. With regard to the employment carrier he started his carrier as a Investment Salesman at Buffett-Falk & Co, Omaha during 1951–1954. And as a Securities Analyst at Graham-Newman Corp, New York during 1954–1956. And as a General Partner at Buffett Partnership, Ltd, Omaha during 1956–1969. In 1970 Buffett became the Chairman, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Omaha.

In 1979, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, began to acquire stock in ABC. With the stock trading at $290 per share, Buffett’s net worth neared $140 million. However, he lived solely on his salary of $50,000 per year. And then by $775 per share, and ended at $1,310. Buffett’s net worth reached $620 million, placing him on the Forbes 400 for the first time. In 1988, Buffett began buying stock in Coca-Cola Company, eventually purchasing up to 7 percent of the company for $1.02 billion. It would turn out to be one of Berkshire’s most lucrative investments, and one which he still holds. In 1999, Buffett is named the top money manager of the 20th century in a survey by the Carson Group, ahead of Peter Lynch and John Templeton.

Personal life

Buffett married Susan Thompson in 1952. They had three children, Susie, Howard, and Peter. In 2004, his wife, Susan, died. Warren Buffett is currently working with Christopher Webber on an animated series with DiC Entertainment chief Andy Heyward. According to information presented by Buffett at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on May 6, 2006, the series will feature Buffett and Munger in roles and the series will teach children healthy financial habits for life. His 2006 annual salary of about $100,000 is tiny by the standards of senior executive remuneration in other comparable companies, He continues to live in the same house in the central Dundee neighborhood of Omaha that he bought in 1958 for $31,500, today valued at around $700,000.

Philanthropy

Buffett is also a noted philanthropist. In 2006, he announced a plan to give away his fortune to charity, with 83% of it going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett announced in June that he would give away more than 80%, or about $37 billion, of his $52 billion fortune to five foundations in annual gifts of stock, starting in July 2006. The largest contribution will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In June 2006, Warren Buffett gave approximately 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (worth approximately USD 30.7 billion as of June 23 2006, making it the largest charitable donation in history. The foundation will receive 5% of the total donation on an annualized basis each July, beginning in 2006. Buffett will also join the board of directors of the Gates Foundation, although he does not plan to be actively involved in running the foundation

Buffett also announced plans to contribute additional Berkshire stock valued at approximately $6.7 billion to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and to other foundations headed by his three children. This is a significant shift from previous statements Buffett has made, having stated that most of his fortune would pass to his Buffett Foundation. The bulk of the estate of his wife, valued at $2.6 billion, went to that foundation when she died in 2004.

Carlos Slim Helú

Carlos Slim Helú was born on January 28, 1940. He is a Mexican businessman largely focused on the telecommunications industry and is the second richest man in the world with a net worth of around US $60 billion through his holdings. On March 5, 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Carlos Slim Helú as the world’s second-richest person

Personal life

Carlos studied engineering at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He married Soumaya Domit in 1967; the couple had three children and were married for 32 years until Domit died of a kidney ailment in 1999. Carlos has a substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and much of Latin America as well. He controls Teléfonos de México (Telmex), Telcel and América Móvil companies. Though he maintains an active involvement in his companies, his three sons Carlos Slim Domit, Marco Antonio Slim Domit and Patrick Slim Domit head them on a day-to-day basis.

Achievements, directorships

He has been vice-president of the Mexican Stock Exchange and president of the Mexican Association of Brokerage Houses. He was the first president of the Latin-American Committee of the New York Stock Exchange Administration Council, and was in office from 1996 through 1998.

He was on the Board of Directors of SBC Communications until July 2004 to devote more time to the World Education & Development Fund, which focused on infrastructure, health and education projects. He is also the Majority Shareholder of CompUSA. In 1997, just before the company introduced its famous iMac line, Slim bought 3% of Apple Computer’s stock.

He built an important Mexican financial-industrial empire, Grupo Carso, which owns, among other companies, the now bankrupt CompUSA electronic retail chain. On December 8th, 2007, Grupo Carso announced that the remaining 103 CompUSA stores would be either liquidated or sold, bringing an end to the struggling company. After 28 years he became the Honorary Lifetime Chairman of the business. He is also Chairman of Teléfonos de Mexico, América Móvil, and Grupo Financiero Inbursa.

Telecom leadership

Slim gained notoriety when he led a group of investors that included France Télécom and Southwestern Bell Corporation in buying Telmex and Telnor from the Mexican government in 1990 in a public tender during the presidency of Carlos Salinas. Today, ninety percent of the telephone lines in Mexico are operated by Telmex. The mobile company, Telcel, which Carlos Slim Helú also controls, operates almost eighty percent of all the country’s cellphones. These operations have financed Mr. Slim’s expansion abroad. Over the past five years, his wireless carrier América Móvil has bought cellphone companies across Latin America, and is now the region’s dominant company, with more than 100 million subscribers.

Awards

Slim has been awarded the Entrepreneurial Merit Medal of Honor from Mexico’s Chamber of Commerce. He is a “gold patron” of the American Academy of Achievement,[8] and the Belgian Government awarded him the Leopold II Commander Meda, CEO of the year in 2003 by Latin Trade business magazine and one year later CEO of the decade by the same magazine.

Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III was born on 28 October 1955. He is an American entrepreneur, software executive, philanthropist, the world’s third richest man (as of 2008) and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft he has held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and he remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 9 percent of the common stock.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a large number of industry insiders criticise his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive: an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. Other court cases on the same charges, in different jurisdictions, are still ongoing. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

The annual Forbes magazine’s list of The World’s Billionaires ranked Gates as the richest person in the world from 1995 to 2007; recent estimates of his net worth are in excess of US$58 billion.

Early life

William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Jr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank and the United Way,

Gates excelled in elementary school, particularly in mathematics and the sciences. At thirteen he enrolled in the Lakeside School, Seattle’s most exclusive preparatory school. He enrolled at Harvard College in the fall of 1973 intending to get a pre-law degree,but did not have a definite study plan and eventually left without his degree. While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer, whom he later appointed as CEO of Microsoft. At the same time, he co-authored and published a paper on algorithms with computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou.

Microsoft and IBM partnership

After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform. He made a demonstration at MITS’s offices in Albuquerque, which was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC. Bill Gates and Paul Allen worked together at MITS, dubbing their partnership “Micro-soft” in November 1975. Within a year, the hyphen was dropped, and on November 26, 1976, the tradename “Microsoft” was registered.

In 1980 IBM approached Microsoft to make the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC. IBM’s discussions with Digital Research was not successfull, and they did not reach a licensing agreement. IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing difficulties during a subsequent meeting with Gates and told him to get an acceptable operating system. A few weeks later Gates proposed using 86-DOS (QDOS), an operating system similar to CP/M and which Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products had made for hardware similar to the PC. Microsoft made a deal with SCP to become the exclusive licensing agent, and later the full owner, of 86-DOS. After adapting the operating system for the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS in exchange for a one-time fee. Gates insisted that IBM let Microsoft keep the copyright on the operating system, because he believed that other hardware vendors would clone IBM’s system. They did, and the sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry.

Personal life

Gates married Melinda French from Dallas, Texas on January 1, 1994. They have three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002). Bill Gates’ house is a 21st century earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. According to King County public records, as of 2006, the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is US$125 million, and the annual property tax is US$991,000. Also among Gates’ private acquisitions is the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci, which Gates bought for USD US$30.8 million at an auction in 1994.

Philanthropy

In 2000, Gates and his wife founded the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller has been credited as a major influence. Gates and his father have met with Rockefeller several times and have modeled their giving in part on the Rockefeller family’s philanthropic focus, namely those global problems that are ignored by governments and other organizations. The foundation’s grants have provided funds for college scholarships for under-represented minorities, AIDS prevention, diseases prevalent in third world countries, and other causes. In 2000, the Gates Foundation endowed the University of Cambridge with US$210 million for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. The Foundation has also pledged over US$7 billion to its various causes, including US$1 billion to the United Negro College Fund. According to a 2004 Forbes magazine article, Gates gave away over US$29 billion to charities from 2000 onwards.

Awards and recognition

Gates has received several doctors honoris causa from several institutions including; Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands in 2000, the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in 2002, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan in 2005, Harvard University in June 2007, and from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, in January 2008. Gates was also made an honorary KBE (Knighthood) from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 2005, in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor.

The Gates’ received the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on May 4, 2006, in recognition of their world impact through charity giving. In November 2006, he and his wife were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program “Un país de lectores”.

Lakshmi Mittal

Lakshmi Narayan Mittal (or Lakshmi Niwas Mittal) was born on June 15, 1950. He is a London-based Indian billionaire industrialist, born in Sadulpur village, in the Churu district of Rajasthan, India, and resides in Kensington, London. He is the richest man in Europe and the fourth richest person in the world, with a personal fortune of US$50.0 billion according to Forbes magazine.

Personal life

He graduated from St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Business and Accounting in 1969 .His father, Mohan, was a partner in a steel company in Calcutta and made a fortune. His residence at 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens was bought from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for $128 million (£57 million), making it the world’s most expensive house. Mittal has two children. His son, Aditya Mittal, is the CFO of Arcelor Mittal. Mittal paid over $60 million (£30 million) to host his daughter Vanisha Mittal’s wedding celebration held on 20 June 2004.

Carrier

Lakshmi Mittal began his career working in the family’s steelmaking business in India, and in 1976, when the family founded its own steel business, Mittal set out to establish its international division, beginning with the buying of a run-down plant in Indonesia. Shortly afterwards he married Usha, the daughter of a well-to-do moneylender. In 1994, due to differences with his father and brothers, he branched out on his own, taking over the international operations of the Mittal steel business, which was already owned by the family. Mittal’s family never spoke publicly about the reason that caused the split.

In March 2008, Mittal was reported to be the 4th wealthiest person in the world by Forbes Magazine (up from 61st richest in 2004) up one place since a year ago. The Mittal family owns 44% of Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steel company. Since 2005, Mittal has been the richest person residing in the United Kingdom. He is the President of the Board of Directors and CEO of ArcelorMittal; ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest producer of steel, with assets in France, Belgium, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa, Poland, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Bulgaria, United States, Trinidad,Brazil and Mexico. On July 13, 2005 it was announced that he had donated £2 million to the Labour Party, and on January 16, 2007 it was announced that he had donated a further £3 million.

Awards

Lakshmi Mittal received Padma Vibhushan in 2008. The Financial Times named Mittal its 2006 ”Person of the Year”. In May 2007, he was named one of the “100 most influential people” by Time magazine. In 2004 ”European Businessman of the Year” by Fortune magazine. And in 1996 “Steelmaker of the Year” by New Steel.

Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani was born on April 19, 1957 in Yemen. He is an Indian businessman and a billionaire. He is the chairman, managing director and the largest shareholder of Reliance Industries, India’s largest private sector enterprise and a Fortune 500 company. His personal stake in Reliance Industries is 48%. His wealth is valued at US$43 billion (according to Forbes), making him the second richest Indian behind steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. Mukesh and younger brother Anil are sons of the late founder of Reliance Industries, Dhirubhai Ambani.

Education

Mukesh Ambani holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT), (now University of Mumbai, Institute of Chemical Technology (UICT)). He has an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Personal life

Ambani is the son of one of the most prominent businessman in India, the late Dhirubhai Ambani, a Gujarati entrepreneur. His brother Anil Ambani heads other companies in the Reliance Group. The Ambani brothers had a well-publicized spat after their father’s death, which led to the Reliance Group being split between the two. Mukesh Ambani is married to Nita Ambani, who looks after the social and charitable arm of Reliance Industries. They have 3 children: Akash, Isha and Anant.

Ambani is currently building a US$1 billion residential building, Antilia in Mumbai for his family. It is expected to be ready in September 2008. Chicago’s Perkins and Will has designed the glass-tower which features a “health club, multiple “safe” rooms, 3 helipads, 168 parking spaces and require 600 servants to maintain, and physically, the structure stands at 27 stories, or 570 feet tall. He gifted his wife Nita a jet plane worth Rs.284-crore(US$70 million) recently on her birthday.

Career

Mukesh Ambani joined Reliance in 1981 and initiated Reliance’s backward integration from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals. In this process, he directed the creation of 60 new, world-class manufacturing facilities involving diverse technologies that have raised Reliance’s manufacturing capacities from less than a million tonnes to twelve million tonnes per year. He directed and led the creation of the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, with a present capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure, at an investment of Rs 100000 crore (nearly $26 billion USD).

Mukesh Ambani set up one of the largest telecommunications companies in India in the form of Reliance Communications (formerly Reliance Infocomm) Limited. However, Reliance Infocom now is under ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) post the brothers’ split. Mukesh Ambani is also steering Reliance’s initiatives in a world scale, offshore, deep water oil and gas exploration and production program, a pan-India petroleum retail network involving 5,800 outlets and a research-led life sciences initiative covering medical, plant and industrial biotechnology.

Achievements

He has been Conferred the ‘Asia Society Leadership Award’ by the Asia Society, Washington D.C., USA, May 2004 and the ‘World Communication Award’ for the Most Influential Person in Telecommunications in 2004 by Total Telecom, October, 2004. He has been chosen as ‘Telecom Man of the Year’ 2004 by Voice and Data magazine, September 2004. He has been ranked 13th in Asia’s Power 25 list of ‘The Most Powerful People in Business’ published by Fortune magazine, August 2004.

Anil Ambani

Anil Ambani was born onJune 4, 1959. He is an Indian businessman. As of October 6th 2007, he has a net-worth of US$45 billion, making him the 6th richest person in the world. His was the world’s fastest-growing multi-billion-dollar fortune in percentage terms as his wealth tripled in 1 year. Ambani is chairman of Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications and Chairman & Managing Director, Reliance Energy, and was formerly Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited. His personal stake in Reliance Communications is 66%.

Personal Life

Reliance group is India’s largest business house, founded by Anil’s late father Dhirubhai Ambani (1938-2002). His mother is Kokilaben Ambani. He is married to Tina Ambani(Munim) who was a well known Indian Actress in early 80’s, and with whom he has two sons: Jai Anmol and Jai Anshul.

Education

Ambani holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Mumbai and an MBA degree from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, he serves as a member of the Wharton Board of Overseers.

Career

Ambani joined Reliance in 1983 as Co-Chief Executive Officer and is credited with having pioneered many financial innovations in the Indian capital markets. For example, he led India’s first forays into overseas capital markets with international public offerings of global depositary receipts, convertibles and bonds. He directed Reliance in its efforts to raise, since 1991, around US$2 billion from overseas financial markets; with a 100-year Yankee bond issue in January 1997 being the high point. After which people regarded him as a Financial Wizard. He has steered the Reliance Group to its current status as India’s leading textiles, petroleum, petrochemicals, power, and telecom company. One of his major achievements in the entertainment industry is the takeover of Adlabs, the movie production to distribution to multiplex company that owns Mumbai’s only dome theatre.

The total investors’ wealth in the four Anil Ambani Group firms — Reliance Communications (RCOM), Reliance Capital (RCL), Reliance Energy (REL) and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) has reached 1,42,384 crore rupees, while total promoter holding is estimated at about Rs 87,000 crore. Anil’s wealth comes mostly from his over 65 per cent stake in RCOM, which has a market cap of about Rs 1,03,000 crore. He also has over 50 per cent in RCL (market cap of Rs 24,000 crore), 35 per cent in REL (market cap of Rs 12,700 crore) and close to 54 per cent in RNRL, which has a market cap of about Rs 2,600 crore. As of 6th October 2007, his net worth was calculated at $45 billion.

Awards and recognition

Anil Ambani has been Conferred as the ‘Businessman of the Year 1997′ award by India’s leading business magazine Business India, December 1997 and also Conferred ‘The Entrepreneur of the Decade Award’ by the Bombay Management Association, October 2002. He has been Voted ‘MTV Youth Icon of the Year’, September 2003. He was adjudged as the CEO of the Year at the prestigious Platts Global Energy Awards for 2004.

Anil was the member of Uttar Pradesh Development Council (This council has now been scrapped) He is also the Chairman of Board of Governors of DA-IICT, Gandhinagar and a member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is member of the Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is also a member of the Central Advisory Committee, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. In June 2004, Anil was elected as an Independent Member of the Rajya Sabha - Upper House, Parliament of India with the support of the Samajwadi Party. In March 2006, he resigned. Recently after his brother Mukesh Ambani he also has his name in the books of Trillionaires.